Quill, Ted, Other - UPDATE November 1, 2016
Ted ate while Sharon and Scott bustled around him, putting straw in his den. Here is a 4 minute video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUYkseh73BY
Hairy woodpecker
I arrived at the WRI at 2:03 AM and found a cup of formula remaining in Quill's bowl and a couple flying squirrels (nocturnal animals) jumping off the scale. I later learned from the trail cam that Quill had been here around midnight. I put another quart in the bowl and 2 pounds of pecans on the scale--a good move. At 3:38 AM I heard a thump.
Lynn checking Quill's bowl at 2:03amQuill was about to get off the scale but had been distracted long enough with the pecans to get a weight--45 pounds, which may have included about a pound and a quarter of pecans that I later estimated were gone from the scale. He might be pushing 44 pounds now and is still coming regularly. It was windy, so everything sounded like danger to him. I've never seen such a nervous bear. Before getting off the scale, he looked around furtively for over a minute. At 3:40 AM, he was about to hop up on the feeder and the trail cam captured the moment. He lapped up about a couple cups of formula in 14 minutes, looking around a lot. The motion sensitive light
Quill at 3:40amcame on out front. A gray fox. Quill watched it nervously and left at 3:54 AM. He hasn't been back. By coincidence, as I wrote the words "gray fox," one appeared outside my window for the first time ever on the second floor deck.
As I typed around noon, both the male and female pine martens went past the window and then down to the date mash. The trail cam showed that they didn't pay attention to the formula, although I did see a red squirrel sipping a little of it yesterday. A gray fox visited the date mash last evening after dark.
Gray fox
Then, just outside the window about 5 feet away, a male hairy woodpecker was hot after a wood-boring insect, pausing his frantic pecking only an instant to look at the lens, giving a good view of the big beak that says hairy (not downy). They differ in size, too, though. Hairies are the size of a robin and downies about half that. I wonder if the white dots around his eye can be used to identify him.
Pine marten
I added a couple cups of formula now at 5:50 PM to bring it up to about a quart. Now that it's getting dark and the blue jays and red squirrels are going to bed, I'll put more pecans on the scale for Quill.
Thank you for all you do.
Lynn Rogers, Biologist, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center